Marshfield, Mo – We all have those special people in our lives that make everyday a little bit better. They make hanging out with them a lot of fun and every day with them is a new adventure. They inspire and motivate everyone around them, they bring smiles and warm hearts into every room they walk into. For the  Marshfield Nazarene Youth Group, that’s just what Brooke and Shawn do.

Brooke and Shawn make sure everyone is happy before themselves. “They make everyone’s happy and attend all of the school events,” said Savannah Clair. They make sure to clear their schedule for all of the teens. Brooke and Shawn are great listeners and are there to be a shoulder to lean on to anyone in need. Shawn is the father figure that a lot of kids missed out on having, He shows them what is right, what’s wrong, listens, and offers to help them with their problems.

Brooke and Shawn often sacrificed their own Friday nights to let the youth group have a safe place to hang out and play games. “Shawn and Brooke always make sure we’re safe and taken care of before themselves,” says Brooke Hunt. They provide the teens with snacks games and movies and move all their furniture around to make room. The teens run and drive around their neighborhood, but Shawn and Brooke don’t even blink an eye because they know they’re safer with them than hanging with their friends.

To others, Shawn and Brooke’s job may look easy. To prepare for a Wednesday night Brooke said “we have to get up at five, drop the kids off come back to the church for meetings, fix the lights pick up the kids from school. When we get back to the church we have to run to the store to get snacks then rush to get the pizza” Most of the Teens in the youth group don’t do that much running around in a week.

Shawn and Brooke take the youth group on many outings and events like Max, Empower, NYC and Camp Table Rock. Most of these events are a couple of hours away or halfway across the country in NYC’s case. They give up time with their kids to take us to these events.

Shawn and Brooke just recently moved to Marshfield after being called to youth ministry. Before Shawn and Brooke got to Marshfield they had a pretty good youth group, but had a lot of social classes which isn’t a great thing in a church. Once Shawn and Brooke got settled it was obvious that the belonged at Marshfield. The students immediately fell in love with them. The students not only loved the preaching but loved them as people and invited them to all the games as well as their after church sonic runs.The youth grouped formed a tight family bond. They would tell each other everything that was going on in there lives, not only that many were growing closer to God as well. Averie Breeden said that “after Brooke and Shawn started coming I have grown closer to God and my youth group and I feel like a lot of that was because of Brooke and Shawn.”

Q and A

Groenke: When were you first called to be a youth pastor?

Shawn: Umm it was in March of 2015 we were serving at a youth event, we were serving as youth leaders, at a church and that’s when I first felt the call into youth Ministry.

Groenke : What was your initial reaction?

Shawn: I was scared to death.

Brooke: I knew that it was happening so I wasn’t that scared

Groenke: What is it like balancing your kids but also your youth group?

Brooke: It’s crazy town because I feel like we have 50 kids instead of just our three kids. But the Lord has really underrated us and given us a little bit of direction.

Shawn: I feel like he’s showed me you can’t go in it like a normal job with work on one side and kids on the other. We have to work them into it was well.

Groenke: Using 5 words how would you describe the youth group?

Shawn: Challenging, amazing, stressful, crazy and transformational

Brooke: Transformational, rewarding, chaotic, loving and leaders